Monday, July 29, 2013

Much has been said about the creation of the new 21st Century university in South Texas and the institution's access to the Permanent University Fund, the endowment set up by the Texas Constitution which on on June 30 was valued at $14.4 billion, making it the largest public university endowment in the United States.

Partly through a mutual agreement between the participants at the time when the UT Brownsville formed a "partnership," with the taxing district of the Texas Southmost College, it and UI PanAm were the only two institutions of the University of Texas System and the Texas A&M University System which did not share on the millions in royalties from oil and gas royalties and leases on the 2.1 million acres.Those acres are located primarily in the Permian Basin of West Texas.

When questioned on why the two predominantly Hispanic universities were left out of the royalties feast, local legislators claimed that convincing the Texas legislature to share in the wealth would be "too
contentious."

In other words, they did not relish fighting for the monies and were content to allow the UT System to use the TSC taxing district to fund construction of the local university facilities through the issuance of bonds to be paid by the local taxpayers. In the case of Brownsville, an initial proposal to issue $128 million in bonds by the the administration under President Juliet Garcia was defeated. They then came back with a pared down $68 million bond issue that the voters approved.

Undeterred, through a series of borrowing from here to there, creative bookkeeping and shifting of funds from other accounts, Garcia's administration nonetheless spent nearly the same $128 million that they first proposed issuing.San Antonio Express News writer Vivky Vaugh recently wrote an article updating the PUF's fund balance. She said oil production on the property reached almost 31.8 million barrels of oil in 2012, up from 19.8 million barrels in 2010.
She quoted Jim Benson, executive director of University Lands saying that 3 million barrels of oil were tapped in December, That — the highest monthly tally since March 1972. He also said that oil production on the property reached almost 31.8 million barrels of oil in 2012, up from 19.8 million barrels in 2010.Vaugh wrote that "University Lands receives a 25 percent royalty from oil and gas production on its land. That translated to revenue of almost $505.7 million in fiscal 2012. In addition, University Lands made $394.9 million in lease payments in 2012. An additional $54 million from miscellaneous sources, including for water, brought the total to $954.5 million."
The PUF does not allow the money to be transferred directly to the universities, however.
The UT and A&M systems receive a distribution from the return on the Permanent University Fund's investments, and the systems are constrained in how they can spend what they receive.
Under the distribution rules, oil royalty funds are distributed from the from the Permanent University Fund to the Available University Fund, where about 5 percent of that is distributed across the two university systems.
At that rate, a $1 billion increase in the Permanent University Fund would equate to a $50 million increase in distributions to the Available University Fund. Of that, Texas A&M would get one-third, or about $16 to $17 million, while UT would get two-thirds, or about $33 million,Vaughn quotes Scott Kelley, the University of Texas System's executive vice chancellor for business affairs.
Now the UT Brownsville administration and the legislative delegation from South Texas are salivating at the prospect of acquiring some of those funds to establish the new university and medical school after the legislation passed in the House and the Senate and was
signed into law by Gov. Rick Perry recently.
Just how much will be forthcoming is hard to tell. But there is already talk about establishing a hospital district to pay for some of the costs associated with the medical school. Hold on to you wallet.
So far, Perry has refused so far to allow the consideration of $150 million in tuition bonds to fund the Brownsville campus.

When the partnership was formed in 1991, State Rep. Rene Oliveira and Texas Sen. Eddie Lucio Jr. declined to take up the fight in the legislature to include UTB-TSC in the annual pie-cutting of the wealth generated by the Permanent University Fund.
We're sot talking small potatoes here. Monies from the Available University Fund can be used to to pay for construction, renovations, major library acquisitions and “significant educational and research equipment and academic excellence programs.”For the past 22 years, the Brownsville and Edinburg campuses were denied access to those funds.

Lucio and Oliveira called it a "contentious" undertaking to pass a similar bill for heavily-Hispanic student bodies and were instead satisfied to receive the meager (and decreasing) offerings of the Higher Educational Assistance Funds (HEAF), and encumbering their constituents with bond debt for decades to come.But just how "contentious" would it have been? The UT Prairie View campus – a predominantly and traditionally B;lack institution – was also lweft out of the PUF at its inception. But those legislators there did not sit back because they saw a "contentious" fight looming to keep them out. Instead, they managed to pass legislation to include Prairie View and it passed. in 1983. That campus has been receiving its PUF share since then.What is the difference between Prairies View and Edinburg and Brownsville? Could it be the caliber of the political leadership the areas have to count on?

16 comments:

Our region has elected officials who want to make everyone happy (especially themselves) and yet never shake the boat. Most RGV citizens don't pay attention, don't give a shit, don't pay taxes anyway and are very happy as long as their checks come in from the state or federal government. Most RGV citizens know more about the Kardashian girls sex lives than the do about anything going on in local government. Most of them don't know about this new transmission lines to link B'ville and Laredo....but they may perk up when the state starts issuing easements on their property in the coming months. Now our local leaders know this....they have kept quiet about it....and there are surely "kickbacks" to grease palms. The Lucio's are never going to rock the boat...they are whores to special interests and they have no moral courage (huevos). Oliviera is another lackey who is a total "weiner"....just taking care of himself....not those who vote for him. Again, he is a whore to special interests. Juliet Garcia, trained at the Kardenas Klan Skool of Mis-Management stole tax dollars which disappeared into black holes...

Juan so ok now we have access to the PUF funds, does that mean we are going to get a refund for 22 years of taxes o no? i say NO way Jose or what?????? we all are screwed y subele mas alas taxes compadre acabo que? what can we do we are all screwed.

The core of the problem is that it is an open joke to have places like Prairie View and Brownsville as part of the UT system. Compare this to the UC system where each university stands on its own merits. It is ridiculous to say a degree from one of the above institutions is anywhere equivalent to a degree from Austin. Not in a hundred years will it change. There is not enough money to go around for this farce. But, you can go ahead a pretend all you want.

"...What is the difference between Prairies View and Edinburg and Brownsville? Could it be the caliber of the political leadership the areas have to count on?"WELL OF COURSE LOL LOLWhat's ironic you pendejos raza democrats, the "OTHER" LIBERAL DEMOCRATS at PUF & UT ARE OBVIOUSLY RACIST for not SHARING THE MILLIONS IN ROYALTIES WITH TO 2 LATINO UNIVERSITIES. IF THERE EVER WAS A CASE TO CRY RACISM THIS WAS IT. QUE BOLA DE PENDEJOS LMAO!!!

You ask if it is the caliber of political leadership. In the case of Eddie Jr., you know...the senator who hasn't had a real job for 20 years but seems to be flush with money...the 'contentious' fight would not enrich him personally or policticlly (which in his case is the same). Eddie Jr. is only interested in Eddie Jr. and it has always been so.

If you want to thank or blame anyone, that person would be Cigarollo or whatever his name is, who is Provost of UT System. He hatched the plot to combine UTB,UTPA and add a medical school. He has to throw TSC overboard and shove Juliet into a corner to get it done, but he did just that. He recruited out two legislators to push his plan through the State Legislature and that is done. He and only he is the puppet master behind all of this. He played his cards well.

timing is everything, very important, right now witht he bickering between tsc and utb is was so just right, the perfect time to get lucio and olivera on board to do this transaction and show they care about their constituents, puro pedo i say, if indeed it was cigerolla deal and well play, got queen julieeta off her throne, throw in eddie and rene and presto deal is done and signed by the governor. es todo, next chapter, it is what it is, i say. Dante

Lucio used to be a regular guest at EX COUNTY COMISSIONER ISRAEL, Israel's daughter pamely got married to the DPS Larrazolo that got busted with a luggage full of money at Golds Gym parking lot. Raymonville Ex Commissioner Israel's daughter Pamely's mother in Law (DPS Larazolo's mom is a midwife who can fix birth certificates for a nominal fee.Again Lucio and Pamely's dad Raymonville's Ex Commioner are caca and calzon.

after 20 years yes finally lucio and olivera finallly figured it out, so now they are ready to retire in style, heck it only took 20 years but its ok it didnt cost them anything, it cost the taxpayers, puros grandes amigos, y subele alas taxes mas muchachos. es todo.